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PEEACIIEI) AT 



AUBURN, N. Y., APRIL 23, 1866 



EET. HE^'EY FOWLEE 



XTOR or THE CENTRAL PRKSBTTERIAX CHURCH. 



BY REQTJE; 



AUBURN, N. Y. : 

AVM. J. JI OSES' STEAM P R J)StS S EST ABE 

X . 1 (5 CLARK S T R K f; T . 

NEW -YORK; SPIELDON cfe CO. 



f» 



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fflftarartw ami §mt\t «t iiftatam PnmlB. 



4 lliiillil 



PREACHED AT 



AUBURN, K Y., APRIL 23, 1865 



BY 



EEY. HEJ^^ET FOWLEE. 



PASTOR OP THE CENTEAL PEESBYTEEIAN CHUECH. 




ptjexjIshed by request. 



AUBURN, N. Y. : 

WM. J. MOSES' STEAM PRESS ESTABLISHMENT, 

NO. 16 CLARK STREET. 

NEW-YORK; SHELDON <fe CO. 

1865. 



\:-4-5'i 



DISOOUESE. 



And the Angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of 
Heaven the second time." Genesis xxii, 15. 



In the midst of unequaled rejoicings, we are called to unequaled 
sorrow. The certainty of Peace was revealed to us as a bright vision ; 
peace won by victories, not bought by conditions ; peace the seal of 
an indissoluble Union, not the treacherous truce of independent sov- 
ereignties ; peace the virtuous bride of liberty, not the mistress of 
oppression; peace, 

" "Whole as the marble, founded as the rock, 
As broad and general as the casing air," 

in fulfilment of the prophecy, " when mercy and truth meet together, 
righteousness and peace kiss each other." Exalted by the certainty, 
we raised our hallelujahs till they touched the skies. Their echo 
but met our ears, when the words of a grimmer prophet are fulfilled : 
" Our feasts are turned into mourning, and our songs into lamenta- 
tions, as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter 
day." This country never saw such grief as marked the Ides of 
April, 1865, when all men lifted up their voices and wept, and the 
Rachels refused to be comforted. That grief abides to-day. The 



4 CHARACTER AND DEATH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Sabbath has tempered the sorrow with its teachings of faith. The 
dismay which follows a first outburst of ambushed evil is past ; anxi- 
ety felt for the Plepublic is allayed, as we observe the luimoved stability 
of affairs ; but the mouniing continues, and we gather now to express 
and ex|)lain our bereavement, and to learn from each others' hearts the 
lesson of the hour. 

" FATHER ABI^AHAM." 

Our grief is both national and personal. When the President of 
these United States was murdered, the shot was aimed at our Country. 
The Republic shivered with the shock ; each American seemetl called 
to avenge the blood; for, when Abraham Lincoln fell, "then you and 
I and all of us fell down, whilst bloody treason flourished over us.'' 

But our grief has its tenderer as well as sterner aspect, its personal 
as well as its national elements. The Filial has taken possession of 
our souls. Not only had the President's administration constructed, 
in the heart of the nation, the confidence which upbuilds between 
honest citizens, but his character had won the peculiar trust felt by 
the son for a wise and good father. We were not afi-aid to ask his 
rea.sons, and we were willing that he should act without giving rea- 
sons. We received his explanations, and with faith alike unquestion- 
ing, we accepted his reticence. His wisdom seemed to us great, but 
not remote; his greatness upbore all the nation with him as ono 
family. He was, and always will be — "Father Abraham." 

HIS MORAL QUALITIES. 

In discussing his character, I do not dwell u]X)n the attainment of 
the Presidential chair, from humblest beginnings, because in this, 
Abrahanx Lincoln is not remarkable. It is our Institutions which 
arc ri'Miarkable. Andrew Jackson, James K. Pollc, Millard Filhiiore, 
and now Andrew Johnson, have become Presidents, though begin- 
ning lilu in straitened circumstances ; while Henry Clay and Daniel 
WeUster, with similar biograpiiy, have been greater than I'residents. 
I Jisk you to consider the honestv of Abraham Lincoln, although you 



have mentioned it a thousand times, for it is too remarkable a quality 
ever to be passed in silence. It was a grace of singular virtue, and 
rare attainment. It not only essayed to speak the truth, but it succeed- 
ed in speaking the truth. Its statements were free from perplexing 
adumbras, and from Janus-faced meanings. You could always tell 
what Abraham Lincoln meant to say. And he not only spoke, but 
acted honestly. His words and his deeds were one. The grand unity 
of truth wrought them into its clear consistency. Few men have 
lived who held over the people, by simple integrity, such prevailing- 
power, or demonstrated to the world wdth such conclusiveness, the 
transcendent scope of uprightness. While conceding that in common 
life, " honesty is the best policy," some have imagined that on the 
broader field of State or National politics, success could be best at- 
tained by the subtlety of the politician, or the arts of the demagogue. 
But this life tells us that integritj' wins, when artifice fails. The Pres- 
ident did not waste the forces of intellect in cunning devices ; he was 
not wearying himself with anxieties about the consistency of his 
record ; he trusted the Ti'uth, and she took care of him ; her way 
out of political labyrinths was short. Thus it was that in the lists of 
diplomacy the President was never ensnared, confused, or doubled on. 
He was more than a match for jjrofessional partisans, and for Southern 
leaders, trained in the dialectics of the Conclave, I do not afiirm that 
honesty was the only source of this superiority ; we must give full 
credit to a sterling sense ; but honesty was the main, as it was the 
moral, head of that fountain of power which enabled Abraham Lin- 
coln to govern the Republic in these years of trial. A trait as diffi- 
cult of retention as of attainment, it was held by him sacred to the 
last, a lustrous jewel ; and as the American people cherish his mem- 
ory, they will repeat to coming generations the fomiliar title which 
embalms his honesty. 

With this upright speech was united 

THE HEARING EAR. 

The President listened to all comers. He exercised a patient absorp- 



6 CHARACTER AND DEATH OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

tion. His long suffering was never exhausted. With equipoise he 
listened not only to all statements of each applicant, but to each state- 
ment of all applicants. He entertained and considered many sides. 
Coming into the Presidential chair without investiture of a clique, he 
held himself untrainmeled by exclusiveness or even partizanship. 
He was accessible to any and all the people ; border state men, peace 
men, war men, conservatives, radicals, religious men, practical men, 
theorists, were received, and their arguments weighed. His greatness 
lay in this all-comprehensive receptivity. He belittled nothing, ig- 
nored nothing ; he had that " Avisdom from above which is easy to be 
entreated, gentle, without partiality, and without hypocrisy." No 
ruler has lived who kept his ear closer to the motions of the popular 
thought, and to the pulsations of the American heart. The voice of 
the people penetrated his soul with a sacred welcome only second to 
the voice of God. 

Accompanying this trait appears 

HIS CLEMENCY. 

He was so long-suffering, so forgi\nng, "not willing that any should 
perish." The governmental power of pardon was used more readily 
than the governmental power of execution. He sought to reprieve, 
rather than to condemn. Mercy overruled justice. He was the fath- 
er rather than the judge of the people. He went to meet the prodi- 
gal while he was yet a great way off, sometimes while unrepentant. 
"We have blamod him for this. We have been anxious at wliat seem- 
ed an umlue leniency whicli encouraged crime. But so he was ! and 
now that his work is done, we discern, not without satisfaction, the 
handwriting of history, as it inscribes MKiicviu crowning letters above 
the record of liis life. N'om.-in living could have won, or would have 
\v(iii, tVoiii tlic American pe(i]ile, (•••isicr terms for tniitors. To gratify 
his purpose of mercy, we would have sacriticed our sense of justice ; 
and reliellion revealei] the depths of its malignity when it called 
Abr.'iliam Lincoln a tyrant, .-md the iicight of its folly when it slow 



CHAEACTEE AND DEATH OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN. 7 

him. Tyrant ? Yes ! as Moses was a tyrant to the Israelites — as 
David was a man of Belial to the cursing Shimei — as Paul was a rev- 
olutionist to the Ephesians — aye, as Jesus was a wine-bibber and a 
publican to Scribes and Pharisees. 

HIS INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES. 

In thus analyzing the moral qualities of the President, I have 
touched upon the intellectual characteristics, for moral and intellect- 
ual, in his nature, interwove their threads as warp and woof. His 
mind was honest as his heart. It received and discerned the truth. 
It never failed, however slowly, at last to grasp and hold the essence 
of the thing. Laying off on either side extraneous circumstances, 
filtrating out the worthless, it gathered the gold, laboriously, yet com- 
pletely, in one nugget, which _it held triumphantly up to the reflect- 
ing light. The President hesitated much before deciding, but none 
after ; flexible then, immovable now I This discerning power enabled 
him, at crises in the war's history, to show the American people its 
way of wisdom. You recall those letters, which he at intervals 
wrote, of such singular insight, simplicity, and logic. He is the only 
American statesman who could handle the edged tool of a letter 
without self-injury ; but every one he wielded, carried conviction to 
the nation. His choice of occasion was as felicitous as his selection 
of truth. He never wrote too soon ; the impatient now say that he 
wrote soon enough. As upon a flood tide, even whose ebb-waves 
each marked higher upon the measure of his influence, did he launch 
the ballasted vessel, freighted with the precious cargo of his thought. 

The President was remarkable for not attempting to solve problems 
sooner than Providence demanded. He made time his right hand 
ally, neither wasting nor crowding her ; he made no drafts on the 
Future ; he lived morally and intellectually, as it were, within his 
income ; he made no promises for next year ; the work of each day 
was all-suflficient, and he kept himself suflBcient for the work. So he 
toiled on, industriously, temperately, never flagging and never hurry- 
ing, beneath the mighty burden which God had laid, unasked, upon 



his shoulders. Holding liiinsell' as the servant of the people, and the 
instrument of the Most High, he waited with docility on the logic of 
events, as uni'olling the decrees of God. 

HIS STORIES. 

To relieve himself in the midst of labors which could not stop, he 
used, with admirable success, a rare gift of humor and illustration. 
He answered manifold applications with as many stories. He replied 
to unsound arguments with jokes which dissolved them. He cheered 
others and himself with anecdotes. He met the incessant demands 
of society with reminiscences. He never could have lived through 
the four years, if God had not endowed him with this mental idiosyn- 
cracy. No i)ublic man resembles him in this. Many have regarded 
his "little stories" as a littleness, but history will treasure them as 
handmaidens of greatness, more helpful than games, more instructive 
than songs. The clearer we apprehend the present era, the plainer 
we may see the need of just such men at the head of atiaire. If he 
had been sedate like Washington, or partisan like Jetiersou, or opin- 
ionative like Adams, or imperious like Jackson, or diplomatic like 
Van Bureu, or impatient like Taylor, could he have saved the American 
Union ? May we not conclude that, in a superior sense, to meet an 
extraordinary emergency, he was called to his work "by the angel of 
the Lord," as Abraham, and Moses, and Davnd were called in old 
times, as Cromwell, and William of Orange, and Washington in 
modern times, whose calling is seen through the special traits with 
which God endowed them, and the controlling circumstances with 
which I'rovidence invested them I 

I am not willing to be borne by the occiision beyond the calm 
judgment of liistury, and yet I do not hesitate to ileclare that the 
people yet have nut appreciated the greatness of Abr.di.im Lincoln. 
So m<)dest, so unassuming, in manner so unaffected, never elated by 
Ills elevation, never imperious because of his re-e-leclion, ever so re- 
spectful to the opinions of otliers, without dogmatism, jiride or vanity, 
— these undoubted evidences of greatness liave veiled ralh«r than re- 



vealed tlie greatness itself, as at noouday grateful clouds hide the 
power that produced them. But as future generations review the 
gentleness, honesty, calmness, wisdom, endurance and buoyancy of 
the man ; as they note the conclusive fact, that the more we knew, 
the more we trusted him, that the heavier grew his burdens, the 
stronger grew the man, they will place him at the head of the nine- 
teenth century. He issued from the Nazareth of Central Illinois, 
and we esteemed him not. He has been our teacher and ruler for 
four years, and we had come to realize that we could lean on him as 
on no other man among twenty millions, who would stand so firm. 
Suddenly he has been slain by those for whom he was pleading, not 
only before Heaven, but before the American people, — "Forgive them, 
for they know not what they do," — and we begin to suspect, we 
begin to feel, that the truest of patriots has fallen, that the costliest 
sacrifice has been laid upon the altar of country. He follows the 
heroes of the war, glorifying each in this long line of martyrs to 
Constitutional Liberty ; the greatest, and God grant the last ! 

BETWEEN THE OLD AND THE NEW. 

The character with which Arthur Stanley invests the prophet Sam- 
uel, we may apply to the President. He was the mediator between 
the old and the new. His two-sided sympathy enabled him to unite 
the 2>assing and the coming epoch, an epoch of surpassing perplexity, 
transition, revolution. In every such passage of a nation, such a man 
is needed. He may be misunderstood and misrepresented at the 
time, attacked from both sides, charged with not going far enough, 
and with going too fer; charged with saying too much, and with say- 
ing too little ; yet he slowly, conscientiously works out the mighty 
problem. Mr. Lincoln was not the founder of a new state of things, 
like ^yashingtou. He was not the champion of the existing order of 
things, like Webster. He stood between the old Union and the new, 
between the past and future, between the dead and living, with that 
sympathy for each, which, at such a period, is the best hope for any 
permanent solution of the questions which torment it. His duty was 



10 CHARACTER AND DEATH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

carefully to distinguish between that wliich was teniiwral and tliat 
which is eternal. He might have but little praise from partisans, but 
he was the careful healer, binding uj) the wounds of the age in spite 
of itself; the good surgeon, knitting together the dislocated bones of 
the disjointed times. 

SYNOPSIS OF CHARACTER. 

Sixteen months ago, I used the following language in addressing 
you, wliieh I re}>eat, in order to make an important addition : "The 
explanation for the President's every act is this : He executes the will 
of the people ; he represents a controlling majority. If he be slow, 
it is because the people are slow. If he have done a foolish act, it 
was the stupidity of the people which impelled it. His wisdom con- 
sists in cariying out the good sense of the nation. His growth 
in political knowledge, his steady movement towards emancipation, 
are but the growth and movement of the national mind. Indeed, in 
character and culture be is a fair representative of the average Amer- 
can. His awkward speech and yet more awkward silence ; his un- 
couth manners ; his style miscellaneous, concreted from the best au- 
thors, and yet oftentimes of Saxon force and classic purity ; his humor 
an argument, and liis logic a joke, both unseasonable at times and 
irresistible always ; his questions answers, and his answers questions ; 
his guesses prophecies, and fulfilment ever beyond his promise ; hon- 
est yet shrewd, simple yet reticent ; heavy and yet energetic ; never 
despairing, and never sanguine ; careless in forms, conscientious in 
essentials; never sacrificing a good servant, once trustiMl, never desert- 
ing a sound principle, once adopted ; nut afraid of new ideas, not de- 
spising old ones ; improving opportunities to cdnfess mistakes, ready 
to learn, g<'tting at facts; doing nothing when he knows nut wiiat to 
do; hesitating at nothing when he sees the right ; lacking the recog- 
nized qualifit atioiis of ;i pai'lv h-ader, and y<'t le.-idiiii;' his party as no 
other man can ; sustaining his political enemies in Missouii to their 
defeat; sustaining his jiolitical friends in Maryland to their victory ; 
cou8orvali\e ill his symjiathies, and ra<lii al in his acts ; Socratic in 



CHARACTER AND DEATH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



11 



his style, and Baconiau in his method ; his religion consisting in truth- 
fulness, temperance, asking good people to pray for him, and publicly 
acknowledging in events the hand of God ; he stands before you as 
the type of 'Brother Jonathan,' a not perfect man, and yet 'more 
precious than fine gold.' " 

To this statement something should now be added in regard to the 
the President's 

CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 

While experience had cultured his language, style and manners, so 
as to supply the defects of early education, it is his Christian charac- 
ter which, during the last year, had specially unfolded and perfected. 
Truthfulness had developed into love of Him who is the Truth ; tem- 
perance had become Christian self-control ; the solicited prayers of 
the good had been accompanied by his own prayers ; and the ac- 
knowledgment of Providence had ripened into the dedication of him- 
self to Jesus. 

He will never be identified with any one denomination. He en- 
listed the fellowship of all Christians. His convictions betook some- 
what of every school. He was educated both by Friends and Pres- 
byterians. In a profound behef in the sovereignty of God, he was 
Calvinistic ; in partiality for mercy, even to the neglect of justice, he 
was Socinian ; but we may speak of him as at once orthodox and lib- 
eral, devout and humanitarian; to whom the kingdom of heaven 
came without observation, and was not declared in the usual phrases, 
but whose "calling was of God." So that, remembering how with- 
out self-seeking, by a singular concurrence of events, which we now see 
were providential, he came, first, to be President, and knowing how, 
by the felt necessities of help from God and by the sorrows of Get- 
tysburg, he was led, next, to a Christian consecration, we may apply 
to him the words of the text : "And the angel of the Lord called 
unto Abraham out of heaven the second time." 

How, fifty months ago, those parting words to his townsmen touch- 
ed the sympathies of the country ! How the request for prayer 



roused tbe Church of Christ ! Since, how easy to pray for Abraham 
Liucohi ! We do not hesitate to beheve that God's answer to the 
prayers thus elicited, have made the President what he was, holding 
him from disastrous blunders, leading him in the path of wisdom. 

But what progress from this primal request does the second ixau- 
GURAL show. This remarkaljle state paper is not a political manifesto, 
but a Christian exposition. It is the words of a man of God, instruct- 
ino- the people of his charge. It presents the sovereignty, wisdom, 
and justice of God, the sinfulness of slavery, the faith, perseverance, 
and charity which become the people. It is the farewell address of 
the Restorer of the Union. It will be read unceasingly, and its Chris- 
tian d<jctriiie, its ripeness, simplicity, pathos and profound sentiment, 
will make it a sacred Epistle to the American people. 

HIS WORK. 

llavinf thus presented his character, we observe that the Presi- 
dent's work was done just as his death came. Posterity will regard 
the emancipation proclamation as the great act of his life, but his 
great work was the saving of the Union. The emaucipatiou procla- 
nuition WJis a means to this end, used with hesitation, lest, unsustain- 
ed by the people, it might miscarry, ;md issued with a prayer that 
the act of freedom, justice, and mercy might receive "the considerate 
judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God." 
The means proved efficient. At first it encountered bitter opposition, 
but it was our safeguard against foreign intervention, our helper in 
the eMlistiiit'tit of colored troops. And so the great work went on 
of restoring the Union, until when Lee surrendered, we may say the 
work wjus done. AVhatever else fails, the Union cannot he dissolrcd. 

Tiie proposal made in the President's first inaugural, "to hold, oc- 
cupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the Govern- 
ment," ha'l been fullilled ; the ports ;iiid chief cities of Rebellion hail 
surrendered ; their armies were scattered, captured, or demoralized ; 
their chiefs wore either slain, paroled, imprisonet], or fugitive; the 
I'resideut had visited their stronghold ; the flag luu.1 been raised on 



CHARACTER AND DEATH OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



13 



Fort Sumter; the appeal iu behalf of a Hberal re-adjustment had 
been made ; the last day of the four years since the first humbling of 
the flag was drawing to its close amidst the joy of a great people, 
victorious over disunion, ready to forgive the traitors, proposing to 
receive back to all the rights and privileges of citizenship, any who 
would take the oath of allegiance, and then, amidst the joy, and hope, 
and peace, and amnesty, the tools of slavery plot for the murder of 
all the rulers— President, Vice-President, Cabinet-Secretaries, Lieu- 
tenant-General. The Secretary of State, our honored townsman, is 
stabbed as be lies helpless upon a bed of pain, his sons and defend- 
ers are disabled, the Chief of all is slain, and the nation cries out in 
agony ! 



But the cry is not alone of agony. It is also a cry for justice. It 
is uttered not against the miserable, dissolute assassins, but against 
the guilty Power that hies them on. It speaks to that conspiracy 
which includes this and any infernal plot — the gigantic consj^iracy 
against human nature, which sought to carry oppression wherever the 
flag of our country rules; which corrupted our national politics, and 
debauched the public conscience ; which forced the country into com- 
promises, only that it might trample them under foot as stepping-stones 
to more arrogant domination ; wbich made war upon a neighboring 
Republic, that it might extend the area of slavery ; which struck down 
a distinguished Senator in his place, and gloried in the act ; which 
forbade free speech throughout its domain, and mobbed or hung 
whomever the love of liberty forbade to keep silence ; which wasted 
the Free State men of our border territories ; which sold its own flesh 
and blood with fiendish greed for gold, breeding for the auction block; 
which waxed arrogant and brutal, till it refused to submit to the 
constitutional election of Abraham Lincoln, impiously insisting that 
he retire from the Presidential chair, and a secessionist, by general 
consent, occupy his place, as the only escape from national disruption ; 



14 CHARACTER AND DEATH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

which demanded that we all bow down to Moloch, or pass through 
the flame and blood of sacrifice, to the hideous idol ; which plotted to 
assassinate the President elect on his way to Washington, fired on Fort 
Sumter, sought to seize the capital by a couj) d''etat, voted States 
out of the Union, concentrated armies, possessed itself of forts, arse- 
nals, ships, and other properties of the United States ; in the midst of 
profound peace, flung abroad the firebrands of civil strife, involved a 
nation of thirty millions in a continental war, consuming thousands 
of millions of substance, and slaying hundreds of thousands of our 
sons and brothers ; which has sought by subtle plot, to involve our 
cities in midnight conflagration, to desolate our towns with sudden 
raids, and by the help of decoyed England, has burned our s^liips on 
the high seas with pirate craft ; which has murdered, by wanton expo- 
sure and designed starvation, thousands of our brave soldiers, prisonoi's 
of war, reducing many to an idiocy worse than death ; which 
has mutilated the bodies of our slain heroes, scattering their flesh and 
shaping their bones into trinkets ; butchered hundreds of our black 
soldiers after surrender, and those white soldiers who escaped from its 
infernal prisons hunted with blood-hounds; which has visited thou- 
sands of Southern homes with fire and sword, hanging many a true 
man before the eyes of wife or sister, for the sole crime of loving his 
country's flag too well ; which has sought for four years, by inflam- 
matory appeals and oftcrs of large rewards, to compass the assassina- 
tion of our chief officers: and whieli, at last, its armies beaten, its 
foreign help paralyzed, its cities captured, its power exhausted, its 
hoj)es demolisheil, with nothing to gain by the cowardly and infa- 
mous deed, sends the jussassin's bullet from behind through the head 
of the nation, and culminates all crimes against humanity by this 
last crowning viilaiiy, fitting close to the horrible record of liunian 
slavery ! 

"Tivimon has dono liio worst ; nor8U>cl, nor poison, 
Aliilicc iluiiu'stic, foreign U'vy, uuthiiig 
Cull toUL'li hiiii furlluT." 

Thero is such a ihing as vengeance; I do not advocate it; but is 



CHARACTER AXD DEATH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



15 



there not such a thing as justice ? Is law never to be vindicated ? Is 
government not ordained of God, as a terror to the evil doer ? Is 
there no such a thing as a righteous retribution ? Are we to see the 
plotters and engineers of this great conspiracy, reinstated in their prop- 
erties, places, and families ? Is Robert E. Lee to be cheered by Amer- 
icans, because as a Virginia aristocrat he fought desperately against 
his country ? Is treason only a difference of political sentiments ? 
What lesson have we to learn? The President, living, teaches us 
mercy, and we listen with consent to amnesty and re-construction ; 
but the President murdered, teaches us retribution, and we swear 
above his open grave, extermination against treason and its jjlotters. 
As a Christian man and a Christian teacher, I ever inculcate mercy 
for the penitent, but for the reprobate, for traitors to the last, for those 
who will murder from behind, when they can no longer fight in front 
— I call upon government to unsheath the sword of justice, and I do 
it in the name of moral law and of Infinite Righteousness. 

But you say, "extermination is impossible." 

Let us analyze the population of the South. 

Before the war there were (in round numbers) three hundred and 
fifty thousand oligarchists ; one million poor whites, their tools ; four 
millions of Africans, their slaves ; five millions of yeomanry. These 
last were for the most part persons of industry and self supporting ; 
some owned one, two, or three slaves apiece ; a few were educated ; 
all preferred the Union, and as a class beHeved in free institutions. 
The survivors of these five millions, with few exceptions, we may trust. 
Many have died for the country, or are now in our armies ; those who 
fought against us, were either deceived or conscripted ; they will take 
the oath of allegiance in good faith, and return to the Union and 
honest labor. Of the poor whites, many have died in the rebel armies ; 
some will wander off to Mexico ; some will become guerrillas and be 
shot ; the few remaining will be of less account. Of the oligarchists, 
many have been slain in battle ; some are in Canada, or Europe ; a 
few are true Union men ; the balance will be banished from the land 



16 CHAKACTER AXD DKATII OF ABRAHAM LIXCOLX. 

ttey have betrayed, or be condemned to deatli. There remain four 
millions of Africans, laborers in the planting States. "\Mio can surjxass 
the African in loyalty, in love for the flag, in bravery, in a desire for 
education, in Bible faitli, in love for Abraham Lincoln ? Shall they 
who weep the saddest tears by the national bier, be denied citizenshij), 
and smiling rebels re-coustruct the Union ? Shall you and I never 
learn to look below the skin ? Yes, we shall ! Though they murdered 
Abraham Lincoln, his work they cannot murder ! Now is the Union 
cemented, and the Emancipation Proclamation sealed with his blood ! 
Yea, we may say that the work to whicli he was "called by the angel of 
the Lord," was but a part of God's great plan for this country. We 
may not discern the plan in its fulness and beauty, but we see already 
outlinc'l the equal protection of all races, the fraternity of peoples, 
the unhindered and universal dissemination of social, political, and 
Christian truth. Abraham Lincoln has led out of Egypt, and from 
Pisgah's top has passed to heaven, "WoU done, good and faithful 
servant," sobs the nation ! Andrew Johnson will lead us into the 
promised land ! 

We may be called to added sacrifices, but sacrifice has vicarious 
power ; our cliildren and humanity will reap the blessing, God's 
furnace of affliction may again be hot, but the fire will purify and save. 
If we onlv win the End, we will bear tlu- pain. It is the blessed pur- 
pose of heaven wc fulfil. We are the keys of the^reat instrument, 
from which an Almighty band reveals the anthem. Last week it 
was the pa'an of praise. To-day it is the dirge. Soon may it be the 
hallelujah of salvation ! God's will bo done ! Amen ! 






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